Stubbornly high unemployment in Oregon has settled into the southern and central areas of the state as Portland does a better job of digging out from the recession.

Portland-area unemployment slid in July to 9 percent -- below Oregon's 9.5 percent and the nation's 9.1 percent-- while some rural counties east of the Cascades remained mired in double-digit joblessness.

Yet even in Central Oregon, the site of the state's most severe housing-market crash, seasonally adjusted rates are improving. Crook and Deschutes counties may seem astronomical at 15.6 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively, for July. But each has dropped 2.1 percentage points since July 2010.

"So Deschutes County seems to be recovering somewhat, even though the rate is still very high," said David Cooke, an Oregon Employment Department economist. "And in the Portland metro area, the rate has dropped substantially over the last two years, especially relative to the U.S."

The great recession appears to have accentuated Oregon's rural-urban divide, with the highest unemployment lingering in some of the most sparsely settled areas of the state. The contrast could grow more stark as federal timber payments to counties expire this winter.

Willamette Valley cities registered relatively low unemployment in July. Greater Portland unemployment fell 0.1 point from June to 9 percent. Salem ticked up by the same amount, to 9.9 percent. The Eugene and Corvallis areas each ticked up 0.1 point, to 9.5 and 6.5 percent.

Cooke said that when someone loses a lob in a rural county, "It's a lot harder to get another comparable job, because the labor market is so small and the opportunities are a lot less diverse. And often people are reluctant to move out of the area if they lose their job because they have ties to the area."

Statewide, unemployment dropped by 1 percentage point or more from July 2010 to July 2011 in 16 counties. Payroll employment across Oregon has been nearly flat during the last five months, as economic recovery stalls in the state and nationally.

Since April, Oregon's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has held in a tight range of 9.3 percent to 9.5 percent. During those same four months, the U.S. rate has stayed between 9.0 percent and 9.2 percent.